Game:

Sengoku 3 (2001)

Duration: 10:40

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The last Arcade title for the time being, Gaia Crusaders is a fun and somewhat challenging retrograde beat-em-up as well as the first game "Noise Factory" would produce, developed in 1999. For their first title, it's not bad at all and their skill and reputation would later be put to the test when they helped SNK revive the "Sengoku Denshou" franchise with "Sengoku 3" (which is great) as well as the "Power Instinct / Gouketsuji Ichizoku" franchise with "Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku: Matrimelee" (which is good) and "Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku: Bonnou Kaihou" (Meh PS2 adaptation of Matrimelee). They've also made original titles like "Ontamarama" for the Nintendo DS. The music for this game was provided by Toshikazu Tanaka who did scores for other Noise Factory and SNK games, such as some of the modern Metal Slug and KoF titles. The story takes place in the year 20XX as you're treated to some delightful Engrish that basically explains that the "peaceful" Earth was conquered by Satan who started wars everywhere and is on the brink of destroying the world when five great warriors are chosen by the "Gaia Guardian" to repair the "Tear of Gaia" which can save the world (which is in pieces and the game is spread across seven stages) and stop the evil.

The game is mostly your bog-standard beat-em-up at this point, though this is not exactly a bad thing. You play with five default characters (out of a total seven as you progress) who have different characteristics and all fight kinda similar but also differently. Characters are of different attributes as well, and characters can use a variety of techniques based on their attributes as they find elemental orbs, as well as a full-screen attack for using spells of their primary attribute (which is powered-up when a character is approaching death). A few odd things about this game is that characters can juggle opponents (with a built in combo-counter, which resets under certain conditions like alternating punches and kicks when enemies are airborne) to rack up points and characters cannot grab enemies, which takes just a smidge of getting used to. There are a few health and item pick-ups too, as well as different bombs and weapons like the sword (I prefer hand-to-hand, but the sword has its uses, especially for stage two). All the characters and enemies are nicely modeled (though Jimi is a bit too average like Cody and some of his special attacks include Terry's "Power Geyser" and King's "Double Strike").

The game features nice, clean graphics with large bosses, interesting level designs, flashy special effects, runs at 60FPS, and features a good soundtrack. The game is fairly lengthy for a beat-em-up and is best played with a friend. Speaking of which, players "can" hit each other, but don't take off life. However, this can still change the way the game is played during delicate segments like the various scenarios present in stage two (with little room to move and a large boss who can be difficult to approach). This is a video of the game in action, going over the first two levels. We bombard the second boss with magic to start fresh for level three, lol. Enjoy.